Last November I attended the sixth annual Celebration of Chardonnay at the De Wetshof Estate, in South Africa’s Robertson Valley. When I last visited South Africa, in 2004, I was more impressed by the beauty of its wine regions than by the wines themselves, but this time I was amazed at the progress that has been made. South African wine represents extraordinary value, and I tasted quite a few truly thrilling wines, including many exceptional chardonnays.

South African chardonnays from the de Wet and Hamilton Russell families

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The conference was hosted by 67-year-old Danie de Wet, along with his sons Johann and Peter, genial giants who must have inspired terror in opponents during their rugby days. I doubt any visitors to their 1,480-acre estate ever rolled out the cliché about white wine drinkers being effete. The family started farming in the Cape Town region in 1700, and while the De Wetshof men are sophisticated world travelers, they seem first and foremost men of the soil—the embodiment of the rural Afrikaans tradition. Over dinner, as I sip a glass of the stunning 1993 De Wetshof chardonnay, Johann tells me that his wife lords over him the fact that her family owns more land than his, the ultimate determinant of social status in this agricultural community.

For years Danie de Wet was a lonely advocate of South African chardonnay, which represented less than five percent of planted vineyards and tended to be a bit clumsy, often overoaked. Australia seemed to be the role model, but at the time Australian chards were about as subtle as the headlines in Rupert Murdoch’s tabloids. Among whites, sauvignon blanc was the star, although chenin blanc, known locally as steen, was by far the most widely planted, having arrived in the 17th century with the earliest Cape settlers, who mainly used it to make cheap plonk and brandy.

Danie de Wet and his sons Johann and Peter

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In 1968, Danie de Wet left the family farm to study oenology in Germany, with the aim of starting a winery back home. De Wetshof produced its first vintage in 1973. During his European sojourn de Wet developed a taste for chardonnay, and in 1981 De Wetshof became the first South African winery to market the varietal. However, the plant material in South Africa at the time was virused and inferior.

So, outing laws against the importation of vines, de Wet smuggled chardonnay intothe country from France—along with, accidentally, some inferior auxerrois—an act for which he was investigated and is now celebrated. The vines from de Wet’s original smuggling operation now provide the raw material for the estate’s top bottling, Bateleur (named after a local eagle), a powerful and complex chardonnay that’s one of South Africa’s best.

Chardonnay runs the gamut from Twiggy to Marilyn Monroe, from anorexic to sumo wrestler, from raw oysters to poached lobster, from Zen to Baroque, from Modigliani to Botero.

After driving me out to see those gnarled old vines, Johann picks up a chunk of limestone, which is plentiful in the great chardonnay regions of France. “Nobody really knows why we have these high-limestone soils,” he says. Usually limestone deposits indicate an ancient seabed and the fossilized remnants of shells. “We don’t think Robertson Valley was under an ocean or a lake. One explanation is that it comes from millennia of fossilized termites.” (Strange as this sounds, my safari guide the week before had informed me that the biomass of termites in Africa is far greater than that of all aboveground creatures combined.) “Whatever the source,” he says, “the high limestone content of the soil makes it ideal for chardonnay—and for raising bigger, stronger horses.” I can’t help thinking that the horses would have to be incredibly strong to carry Johann, who once competed on the national equestrian team.

The conference the next day was preceded by a tasting of chardonnays from most of South Africa’s wine regions, and I couldn’t help being impressed by the quality as well as the diversity of styles. A few ringers om Burgundy and Sonoma filled out the roster, but none of them outshone the locals.

Among my favorites was a 2015 produced by the Hamilton Russell family, the other great pioneers of the varietal in the Cape. Anthony Hamilton Russell, who attended the conference, would never be mistaken for a de Wet; at six foot four he’s tall enough, although much too lean, and his accent and manners are decidedly English, as opposed to Afrikaans.

A 55-year-old Oxford- and Wharton-educated dandy with a distinctly Frenchpalate, Hamilton Russell took over and then purchased the estate founded by his father Tim, an advertising executive with a wine jones. The property is located inthe Hemel-en-Aarde Valley, the rugged beauty of which Hamilton Russell’s father wasn’t the first to appreciate: The land is littered with prehistoric artifacts, including Acheulean hand axes dating back one and a half million years. In the years since Hamilton Russell’s chardonnays and pinot noirs began attracting prizes, many other wine pilgrims have set up in the Hemel-en-Aarde, which is the source of a good deal of the best South African chards, including Storm Wines, Restless River, Newton Johnson, and Ataraxia. If Burgundy is your benchmark, the Hemel-en-Aarde is probably the best place to buy.

Mountain-ringed Stellenbosch, possibly the most beautiful wine region in the world, is the best-known source of chardonnay, and many of those it produces seem closer in style to California than to France. Among the best are Jordan, Rustenberg, DeMorgenzon, and Thelema. At the Singita Boulders safari lodge, which has a full-time sommelier, I drank a 1995 Thelema that was incredibly rich and complex, probably better than any white Burgundy from that vintage. The newest region to excel in chardonnay is Elgin, where vines have been replacing orchards; chards like Kershaw and Paul Cluver offer a nice balance between the riper and leaner styles.

Anthony and Olive Hamilton Russell

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In my address to the conference, I said, “Depending on when it’s picked, where it’s grown, and who is making it, chardonnay comes in a huge variety of styles ranging from lean and stony to opulent and tropical. Metaphorically speaking, it runs the gamut from Twiggy to Marilyn Monroe, from anorexic to sumo wrestler, from raw oysters to poached lobster, from Zen to Baroque, from Modigliani to Botero.” South African chardonnay offers a wide spectrum of styles, some resembling, metaphorically speaking, powerful, broad-shouldered de Wets, others more like sleek and sophisticated Hamilton Russells, the only constant being an excellent price-to-quality ratio.

This story originally appeared in the June/July 2017 issue of Town & Country.

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